Snake pit

Former NFL star brings his handball game to Kalispell

By DILLON TABISH/The Daily Inter Lake

Behind the Elks Club south of town, in a cramped three-court gym, the door opens and in walks Jake Plummer.

A cold rush of air follows from the snowy parking lot and the former Denver Broncos quarterback, wearing a brown ski cap over his short, dark hair, looks like an unassuming boxer in his gray sweat pants and hooded sweat shirt.

It smells like a sauna and a group of older men are stretching before taking the courts for a game of handball on the final day of an annual gathering.

"Hey, Jake," a 60-something man says as he walks by and pats the 6-foot-2 Plummer on his throwing arm.

Plummer smiles and returns the gesture.

It's Sunday, and the resident of Sandpoint, Idaho, is doing exactly what he wants to be doing - playing handball.

Fifty-five players from across the West competed in the 28th annual Valentine's Open handball tournament at the Elks Athletic Club this past weekend.

For some, it's a weekend of hard-core handball. For others, it's a good way to catch up with old friends. For Plummer, it's become a family tradition.

His father, Steve, introduced his three sons, Brett, Eric, and Jason (Jake), to handball when they were kids. Handball, similar to racquetball but without the racquet, requires players to be quick, agile and constantly in motion.

Although Brett and Eric picked up after their father - winning state open titles in Idaho - Jake went a different route.

Born in Boise, Plummer went to Arizona State University on a football scholarship and quarterbacked the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl in 1997. The next year, the Arizona Cardinals selected him during the second round of the NFL Draft. After six seasons with the Cardinals, Plummer went to Denver and compiled 11,631 passing yards and 71 touchdowns in four seasons. He led the Broncos to the playoffs three times.

But after lopsided playoff losses, Denver decided to go in another direction and drafted a first-round replacement for Plummer - Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler.

The Broncos traded Plummer to Tampa Bay in 2007, but the fourth-quarter legend nicknamed "The Snake" decided to hang up his cleats.

"Yeah, I think about it," Plummer said about football. "I just have no desire to go get beat up again. You know, I miss throwing the ball with the guys and I'd love to go on a last-minute drive and see if I could still do it, but to do that would mean getting into it full fledged, and that's a lot of commitment. I did it for 10 years - in the NFL it was 10 years - and that was enough. I was ready to move on and start new things."

Such as spending Valentine's Day in Kalispell.

"This is one of (brother Eric's' favorite tournaments," Plummer says. "They run it really well and you know, three courts in the old Elks building, I mean, it's classic. I like it. It reminds me of when I was a kid going to the old courts with my dad."

On Saturday, the 30 or so fans sitting above the white racquetball court, sipping on keg beer, saw a familiar performance. Wearing a headband with PEACE written on it, Plummer bounced around the small court like a frantic quarterback inside a shrinking pocket.

"I think it's the perfect game," the 34-year-old Plummer says. "It's a ball and a wall; it's simple.

"When you're playing well and winning, it's a big accomplishment. You feel good because it's just you in the court against another man," he adds. "It's kind of gladiator-esque because you're in that little cubicle in there and it's man versus man."

Plummer won three matches Saturday - one lasting about 2 1/2 hours - and advanced to the semifinals that night against Michael Barragan, a local elementary school counselor who co-organizes the annual tournament with Paul Wachholz and Larry Kaber.

Swinging his arms like baseball bats, Plummer won the first of three sets easily. But after that, 55-year-old Barragan used experience to overcome Plummer's jaw-dropping athleticism in the semifinal.

"This is a game that you have to use both hands: You gotta run, you gotta think," says Barragan, who lost to Kalispell's Chance Wachholz in the championship Sunday. "It's a mental game like tennis. The only reason I can beat Jake is because of a little bit of strategy." Strategy can overcome strength and speed, he says.

"It was an honor," Barragan says about the match. "He's a great athlete and a gentleman on the court."

Despite the loss, Plummer was upbeat. He says he enjoys the relaxed atmosphere that comes after a tournament, which sometimes mimics a winning team's locker room.

"I really enjoy all the aspects of it," he says. "That's a fun part too, the camaraderie - drinking beers after a match, kind of hanging out with the guys. It's a good time."

Others don't put it so modestly.

"It's important in a handball tournament to drink a few beers and get a little rowdy," says 'Red Death,' a.k.a. Randy Jolliffe of Missoula. Jolliffe's first handball tournament was the Valentine's gathering in 1993 after "a guy picked me up from my grandpa's funeral and brought me to Kalispell and said, 'Here's handball.'

"It's awesome," he says. "Been playing it since."

Despite the excitement surrounding the games and the notable participation of Plummer, the sport is still anything but mainstream.

"The trouble is, we don't have younger players," Barragan says. "Handball is a little obscure, but you play it for life."

Plummer says when he was in high school and college, handball took a backseat to football. But he never lost his passion for the sport.

"I did it whenever I could, even when I got to ASU. Finally I got back into playing it and I wish I never would have stopped," he says. "My arm stayed in great shape the last four to five years of my (NFL) career, just from playing handball."

Getting back into the sport also allowed Plummer more time with his family.

"It's always a lot of fun being on the court with my brother (Eric), and one day maybe I'll be able to beat him," says Plummer, who hasn't been able to top his older brother in a tournament. "I can go out there, and he can still beat me up."

Plummer's final Kalispell match was a doubles open game against a pair from Coeur d'Alene.

Sitting up in the stands, his wife, Kollette, watched him compete with a little less worry than she used to have on Sundays, when Plummer was dodging incoming linebackers.

"He still throws his body around quite a bit, but he doesn't get beat up as much," Kollette says.

At moments during the final match, Plummer looks up into the audience and sees his wife and brother, and grins. Then he turns, and gets back to business, swatting the blue ball.

He doesn't score the game-winning shot. That honor goes to his partner and former high school basketball teammate, Ryan Luttman.

Afterward, he takes off his gloves and looks at his swollen hands, calloused and bruised. He lets out a sigh of relief and smiles.

"They're hurting," he says, "but that's normal."

Reporter Dillon Tabish can be reached at 758-4463, or by e-mail at dtabish@dailyinterlake.com